Buenos Aires, Argentina, Mar 7, 2005 / 12:00 am (CNA).- The director of Human Life International’s Rome office, Father Ignacio Barreiro, has sent a letter to Bishop Antonio Baseotto of the Military Diocese of Argentina, expressing his solidarity and support for efforts to oppose the Argentinean government’s desire to legalize abortion.
In the letter, Father Barreiro applauds Bishop Baseotto for his “brave and prophetic defense of the right to life” of the unborn and for challenging those “who defend the crime of homicide as a potential policy of the State.”

Father Barreiro said he was aware of the “persecutions” that the bishop is suffering for his “defense of the truth.” “The Lord will give you a crown of glory,” he told Bishop Baseotto, “and he will punish your detractors.”

By confronting the efforts of the country’s Minister of Public Health, Gines Gonzalez Garcia, to legalize abortion, writes Father Barreiro, Bishop Baseotto is defending “the common good” of his nation and of many others that “suffer or are threatened” by this type of killing.

Lastly, Father Barreiro reiterated the importance of proclaiming the truth about condoms, which he called “a weapon of death,” and he encouraged Bishop Baseotto to pray for protection to St. Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, who suffered martyrdom for defending the truth.